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Mileena Matchups

ZeroEffect

Warrior
I guess it's just a matter of how well the Noob player reads your wakeup. The one I fought punished me enough for wakeup teleports that I started using it much less, so I had to base my strategy around the safest possible options.

But since character matchups should be based on what the character can/can't do, and not based around player adaptation, I can see why it shouldn't be a horrible match for Mil.

Didn't get to test anything with Kano yet. But if anyone has any Kano experience feel free to chime in. Only offline characters I get to play against are Noob, Cyrax, Jade, and some Sindel.
 

AIBOSTON

Don't be mad!
I agree with Coolasice for the most part. Fighting against a good Scorpion is a real challenge. I have a friend who recently won the MK Ultimate Clash tournament held in London and he mains Scorpion but plays a good Smoke and Noob Saibot too. Scorpion seems to be highly underrated as I personally would put him amongst the top 5 in the game atm, but as far as I can tell this is an uphill battle for Mileena and will generally lead to her needing to take high risks. Scorpion can be played in a very safe way and can place you in a variety of frame traps to keep up pressure. Not to mention once he gets in on you he is also capable of mixing you up very well. All round I would say Scorpion's normals and combos are much faster than Mileena's with a better d+2 to boot.

Certain things I have learned so far is :
-EX Teleport can be punished by uppercut before he lands the first hit. Timing is required so you will need a sharp eye if your opponent throws out random EX Teleports (which is likely as it leaves him at frame advantage and can lead to even more mix up).
-IAS is pretty much a necessity in this match up if you want to get around ground fire from long range.
-A flowchart Mileena will get eaten up by Scorpion as he has the necessary tools to adapt to Mileena's zoning and rushdown tactics. Whether it's through Hell Fire (or EX HF which is much more scary), Teleports or frame traps, Mileena has to maintain a mix up approach as there doesn't seem to be a sure fire tactic that is applicable here.
-Mileena's d+4 is a very useful poke in this match up, keeping Scorpion at this range is essential as you can still tag him with a 4,2 chain as your own frame trap, punish a Hell Fire attempt and limit his options forcing a jump or a random attack to counter.

Hopefully soon I will have more input on the Scorpion, Smoke and Noob MUs within the next couple days.
I have yet to fight a Scorp I just couldnt beat.

But you never know...The hardest matches ups for me is Lao, Kano, Smoke, Ermac, Raiden. I have managed to take the series but its harder for me.
 
If you do teleport on wakeup or after one is blocked and he is using shadows as fast as possible, then it will always hit. The best he could do is stagger them a bit, but then you can jump in or use sais yourself. Seems like a pretty even match if there ever was one, I think.
very true...only problem is when you play a good Noob player, the up shadow kick beats both wake up options of dive kick and roll. if he threw shadows all day that'd be easy to deal with...but then i guess that's what the mind game is all about...make him think you'll wake up dive kick and he goes into up shadow kick...then roll him i guess
 
oh for the most part i'm personally not saying these are bad match ups for M. I'm mostly asking for advice on characters i see the most so i can get some kinda edge.
 
So far the main problem i've been having is against Bad Ermacs ( tele grad whores) and liu kangs that just do the same 3 hit combo to carry.
 

Somberness

Lights
very true...only problem is when you play a good Noob player, the up shadow kick beats both wake up options of dive kick and roll. if he threw shadows all day that'd be easy to deal with...but then i guess that's what the mind game is all about...make him think you'll wake up dive kick and he goes into up shadow kick...then roll him i guess
In all honesty, in a real (and offline) match I'm not actually sure what happens, so everyone should not take what I say as 100% truth, However, I do test things and spend most of my time in training checking things like what is avoidable/punishable... it can be better to do certain things outside of a match because there is no difference in skill level. I just wish I had the dexterity to be a good player. :( I just hope I can help someone out here with my theories.

Bad matchups... I would say Jade is Mileena's worst with Kano up there as well. On paper, though. :) Just basing this off of characteristics... In an even match, who knows?
 

Runefyst

Noob
Yeah, I've gotta say. Most matchups I find can be overcome if I'm playing smart. But Kano....I have no idea how to deal with that upballing prick. It's SO hard to punish!
 

Sirop

Noob
For me the hardest macthup is against Kung Lao. The spinning takedown, the hat toss are pretty hard to deal with. Teleporting, when playing against Kung Lao is most of the time a bad idea because of that annoying spinning. The easiest matchups are against Sheeva, Kitana and Sonya.
 

ZeroEffect

Warrior
Bad matchups... I would say Jade is Mileena's worst with Kano up there as well. On paper, though. :) Just basing this off of characteristics... In an even match, who knows?
You know, I think after a bit of time people will begin to see just how dangerous Jade really is for a lot of characters.

Other than that, I agree with Jade and Kano, and possibly Ermac. But also I think Johnny Cage is making a case too for a bad matchup. Especially now, if the armor buff I'm hearing his EN Shadow Kick got is in fact true.
 

Sirop

Noob
How could I forget Ermac. It's by far the most annoying fighter out there. I hate playing against Ermacs. The force lift and teleport drives me crazy.
 

Tanion

Noob
Oh, it's true. And the Cage players know it's a pain in the ass to deal with.
I have a question for yall. How the HELL do you deal with a defensive/turtling Johnny Cage player? The one I play against often offline is so FRUSTRATING! I don't even know what do for wake ups. He always usually sticks to just straight blocking my wakeup attacks or doing "That's the Trick" combo where it is a bunch of head kicks and the last one is an overhead. I either...

1) block the string then get pressured again with the same combo.
2) Eat the string then get thrown
3) Eat the string then eat the anti-air shadow kick if I try to jump

I can't instill any fear rushdown on this guy because all of his stuff outpokes me. Are there low poke strings that I can use for combos? Or just... SOMETHING to get out of that string? I feel like a lot of my Millena's game gets taken away when I am afraid to get in. :/
 

Somberness

Lights
Try and use either the overhead or the BK,BP combo (as they have good range) after poking him away with low kicks. You might eat some shadow kicks but it is better than being comboed. Stay away at all times. Speaking of low kicks, has sweep gotten a few frames faster or something? I don't remember it being so much faster than back+FK. Probably my imagination...
 

ZeroEffect

Warrior
I dunno if sweep has gotten faster. If it has I don't really notice a difference.

As for Cage, Dash, D+3/D+4 is your very best friend. Why? because Shadow Kick can be ducked. (unless the patch changed that too.... hopefully not) Mileena's Low kicks put her hitbox so low to the floor you can use that to close distance and interrupt the kick. You don't get a combo after these pokes, but you do get setups.

D+4's range is really good and out-ranges his general pokes. (specifically the knee that he uses for the "That's the trick" string). Both these low pokes give frame advantage and can be cancelled into uninterruptible specials. I like the Sai cancel personally. So you dash in, D+3,Sai. If the low hits the sai must be blocked. If the low is blocked, The sai might whiff over their heads, but I still don't think it can be interrupted. If both hit, you are now at advantage. Be warned, if Cage has a full bar, He can (and will) X-ray you to death if you aren't careful.

In my experience, you have to play her hit and run style just right to bait mistakes from Cage (nearly impossible to play it right online). She used to be able to zone him much better, but armored EX Shadow Kick makes that a problem.
 

Somberness

Lights
Ground sai is unsafe on block against Johnny Cage up close so you would need to be maybe 2 body widths away for it to be safe. I know you can duck shadow kick but not on reaction... If you remain grounded, you will eventually be hit with his overhead launcher as it advances forward or a well timed jump in. Playing defensively won't work either as his strings are so good so that's why you must risk being shadow kicked and go on the offense, from range though.
 

ZeroEffect

Warrior
You're not ducking the kick on reaction as that's impossible. You'd be using D+3/D+4 after dashing and it will go under it should he attempt the kick. It's a shortcut to dash crouch. And yeah he has ways around it, but I mean you can't stop everything. It's to get him out of the comfort zone of using shadow kick. D+4 seems to stop a lot of jump-ins as well, so it's a pretty good defensive tool.

I didn't know that ground sai was unsafe at all, as I've never been punished for it, but if that's the case then you'd just have to use it sparingly.
 

ZeroEffect

Warrior
Anyway, does anyone know of any GOOD matchups for her? She seems to either be even with, or at disadvantage, against most of the cast. Right now I can't really think of anyone she has any sort of advantage over except for maybe Jax.
 

Runefyst

Noob
Good matchups? Well she rips Sheeva apart (not that Sheeva is great) Any Kitana I go against seems to be a decent matchup. I'll win out even if they're fairly good. I have no way to know for sure though.
 

ZeroEffect

Warrior
Ok fought a couple Sheevas online. Had some trouble at first dealing with the random Teleport Stomps from the first guy, but then I figured out that Mileena's teleport beats it clean everytime. Other than that it was just trying to predict when to look for the fireballs and roll under them. You can also Instant air sai over her stomp, pretty much on reaction. (I failed a few times due to slight lag, but I'm sure it's doable offline)


Against Jax, not too sure about how to correctly approach this matchup with the new armor punch, Instant air sai will keep his ground pound in check even if he decides to cancel it. Also, something interesting to note is that Mileena's B+3/B+4 will either beat out or evade nearly all of Jax's wakeup options.


Mileena might also have a good matchup against Sub Zero. It may be only even, but it doesn't feel like a disadvantage for her. Biggest pros are:
- EX telekick can get out of Ice Clone corner traps
- Standing sai beats slide clean and recovers in time to block the ice ball at far range. Loses to EX freeze though, so be careful when he has meter.

Obviously, the Sub Zero player can hurt her for making the wrong reads, but character wise it doesn't seem like she's lacking in tools.


After playing a Sonya offline, I think this match is either even or possibly in Mileena's favor. I'm unsure at the moment because the Sonya player didn't really know any real damaging combos or anything, but he did have a good mind for using her.

Pros:
- Mileena zones her very well from far and this forces her to either dash block or divekick.
- If you bait divekick you get free roll punishes, If she arc kicks, you can dash in and get full combos, (or just roll if it's easier)
- Mileena seems to get more damage overall than Sonya, due to the number of ways Mileena can combo off of things
- Instant Air Sai can stop Sonya from approaching too quickly and also stops arc kick in mid air for combos.

Cons:
- Really well-timed low Divekicks really hurt Mileena's low poking game with D+3/D+4. This gives her big frame advantage (not sure if she can combo after low hitting divekicks. If so, then it's even worse)
- Divekicks also beat nearly anything Mileena has in the air.
- Her uppercut is fast enough to punish EX Telekick (unless Mileena does an immediate air sai).
- Roll is punished with Kiss into combos.


That's all I got for now.
 

Runefyst

Noob
Well, rep'd Mileena pretty decently at the tourney I went to. Made top 8 via winners bracket. A Noob then a KL player put me out though. But they fought each other in the grand finals, so I didn't feel too bad.

On that note, the Noob player had mastered his zoning game, and as far as I can see Mileena doesn't have much to beat that upward shadow man. It's got an enormous hit box, and recovers really fast as well! I couldn't see it before because I hadn't fought many Noobs, but he's definitely one of her worst matchups I'd say.